Ahern waits to hear if he needs coalition ally

Bertie Ahern's centre right Fianna Fail party romped to victory in the Irish general election yesterday, leaving the main opposition, Fine Gael, struggling in its wake.

But he will have to wait a few more days to see if he can form the country's first one-party government in 25 years or if, as predicted, he will fall one or two seats short of the 83 necessary for an overall majority.

Under Ireland's single transferable proportional representation system a handful of the 166 seats may not be decided until tomorrow or Wednesday. Tense recounts were under way in several other closely contested constituencies.

Mr Ahern's return as prime minister, however, is assured, with voters having responded to his considerable personal appeal and the economic feel-good factor, which has dominated his five years in power. He professed himself "thrilled" at the results.

Sinn Fein was also jubilant after increasing its representation in the Dublin parliament from one to five members. It topped the polls in three constituencies, with the former IRA gun runner Martin Ferris, in Kerry North, its highest profile winner, his image undented by claims of links to vigilante activity in the area, or by the IRA's alleged involvement with Colombian Farc rebels or the Castlereagh police station break-in.

The Sein Fein president, Gerry Adams, said the vote, around 7% of the overall poll, was a ringing endorsement of republicans' peace process strategy and their quest for social and economic equality.

According to Belfast security sources, Mr Ferris's victory means four of the IRA's seven-strong IRA ruling army council are now parliamentarians, with Mr Adams, Martin McGuinness and Pat Doherty elected to the UK parliament.

Some commentators read this as a sign that the doves in the republican movement are in the ascendant.

But northern unionists are nervous, particularly given the electoral threat which Sinn Fein, which eclipsed the moderate nationalist SDLP in last year's Westminster election, could pose in next May's Stormont assembly poll.

Mr Ahern has insisted he will not consider a coalition with Sinn Fein while the IRA exists. "Sinn Fein has to go the rest of the way and we have to make sure there is no IRA," he said. "There cannot be ambiguity. You cannot have a position where you have some sort of allegiance to a paramilitary army.

Fianna Fail's former coalition partners, the Progressive Democrats, confounded expectations of a poor showing by gaining at least one new seat - their tally was five last night.

They still look the most likely candidates to join Mr Ahern in government, should he need support, despite tensions between the two parties during the campaign.

Mr Ahern has insisted he has always worked well with the Progressive Democrats and that they are his preferred coalition option.

Mary Harney, the Progressive Democrat leader, said: "We would not run away from government but we'll only be there if we thought we would have a meaningful role."

Michael Noonan, the leader of centre-left Fine Gael, had called on his supporters to let him replace the culture of selfishness encouraged by the Ahern administration with a more caring society.

But his lacklustre campaign failed miserably against the Bertie factor and he fell on his sword on Saturday night when it became obvious his party had gone into electoral meltdown. Last night, it was down from the 1997 figure of 54 seats to 30, its worst polling in decades, and was virtually wiped out in parts of Dublin and other major cities.

Mr Noonan said: "I've given my best but when you are leader of the party you have to accept responsibility. A lot of people pledged their faith in me to reverse the decline. I did not reverse the decline."

There was no obvious successor, given that many of the party's best-known faces suffered ignominious defeats, including Mr Noonan's deputy, Jim Mitchell, the party's former deputy Nora Owen, and Austin Currie, a founding member of the SDLP and leading northern civil rights campaigner in the 1960s and 1970s.

Gloom also descended on the Irish Labour party, after expected gains failed to materialise. Its best known casualty was its former leader Dick Spring, once a deputy prime minister and key player in the Northern Ireland peace process, who lostto Mr Ferris in Kerry North.

However, environmentalists were celebrating one of the surprise success stories of the campaign - the Greens' leap from two to six seats make it the fifth largest party in the republic.

Results

Seats won with 10 results to come, and, in brackets, seats held in previous parliament